Honestly, I just want an excuse to talk about Timewaves. They’re great. I love Nordic progressive metal, and this scratches that itch. Combining that dark, fresh sound with heavier vocals and orchestral keys leads ends up being quite fun. They’re releasing their debut Resilience this year, and trust me when I say, it’s worth waiting for. If you’re into Leprous, but want something more aggressive, like earlier Opeth with more theatrics, then check this out. I present to you, “The Sickle is Drawn”.

Something is golden in the Kingdom of the Scots. And the Irish. And the English. For the past decade, the “old country” has been giving us more and more excellent releases revolving around the genres of post rock, math rock, alternative rock and the such. More than that, bands from the area have been painting these genres in brighter and more unique color than their compatriots in other places. Examples? VASA, Town Portal, Alpha Male Tea Party and more and more. Well, here comes another; A Sudden Burst of Colour have recently released a single titled “I Am The Storm” and it’s all of the above; it’s a bit of post rock, a bit of math rock and a whole lot of groove section goodness. We’re here to tell you to check it out!

As is Christmas tradition, we at Heavy Blog Is Heavy have yet again reached out to some friends and family in the online metal community to put together a small gift to our readers in the form of Heavy Comp Is Heavy! This year, in our fifth year, we’ve collected eighteen tracks from several genres in order to promote musical discovery for small and independent acts from 2017 and beyond.

I’ve always been someone with a soft spot for symphonic black metal, ever since first discovering Emperor and their classic album In the Nightside Eclipse, and have had an on-again, off-again infatuation with the genre and it’s eccentricities ever since. One of my biggest complaints about the genre, however, was that…

Another year draws to a close and here we are again, telling you about yet another superlative release from the one, the only, Holy Roar Records. For those who aren’t aware, we are paid handsomely by the label to cover their releases; I myself am writing this from an unnamed Pacific island which I have made my home, thanks to all the gold that they have bestowed upon me. Money is no object to me and I’m richer than all of you so suck it. Nah. They don’t. And I’m not. We have dedicated a feature to this specific label because like us, they don’t believe in dull, insipid music and as such do not release any. This edition of the HR-Files will get a bit dirty, a bit rough around the edges and definitely doesn’t belong in the ‘dull’ category. Playing vibrant and vicious metal from the UK, never afraid to toy with conventional metal sounds, we present you Watchcries and Wraith.

Last year, we told you to listen to Path of Might not once but twice. They had this heaviness about them that’s rare even within their stoner/sludge sub-genres; both releases were chock full of riffs and sheer awesomeness. Well, rejoice! Path of Might are back/still around and this time, they…

The “jam” is one of those musical devices that walks a delicately drawn fine line. On one side are classics like Can’s “Halleluwah” or The Velvet Underground’s “Sister Ray,” both of which are defined by an embrace of improvisation, interplay and gradual evolution that keep the song fresh throughout a roughly 20-minute run time. But on the other side, you have endless journeys of gratuitous musical masturbation that create a significant imbalance of enjoyment between the players and their audience. Walking this line is obviously difficult; though defined by higher tier musicianship, an effective jam band can’t venerate their abilities as musicians at the expense of songcraft, particularly in terms of defining the genres and styles from which the extended composition is being drawn out of. All of this makes it that much more impressive that Mother Engine have not only mastered the “jam” formula, but excelled at replicating that equation fourfold on their third full-length outing Hangar, which we’re stoked to be able to premiere for you in full.

Anyone else remember the good ol’ days of mathcore and grindcore on Myspace circa 2008? Chaotic hardcore, grindcore, and deathcore blended in a menagerie of inaccessible weirdness. The Dillinger Escape Plan, Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, Psyopus, See You Next Tuesday, and The Number Twelve Looks Like You were among some of the highlights. They just don’t make metal like that much anymore, and what’s troubling is that only one of those five bands will be active come 2017 — No. 12 — and they’ve broken up once before already.

Lifelink comes to us courtesy of Philadelphia record label, Innerstrength, having honed their particular take on metallic hardcore on their second release, Love Lost. The EP heavily features the guitar talents of Josh Brown and Kamran Oskouie, some might even say it relies on them. The track we’re premiering here, “Lost”, shows roots similar to those of Architects, Volumes, and Novelists, with some nicely worked exchanges from Brown and Oskouie as they switch from mid-tempo moshes to trading off leads amidst Dillinger-esque chords. Meanwhile vocalist, Luke Blanchard, stays firmly in the pocket between a growl and a yell which might belie the range he has developed since the band’s last release, Nothing, that came out in 2015.